Flour-bin



(No Model.)

C. TANGENBERG.

PLOUR BIN. No. 476,430. Patented June 7, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CI-IRISTIAAN TANGENBERG, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 476,430, dated June 7,1892.

Application filed November 9, 1891. Serial No. 411,289. (No modelJ Toall whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHRISTIAAN TANGEN- BERG, a citizen of the UnitedStates, :residing in Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIliinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Flour-Bins, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the construction of flour-bins for kitchenuse.

The object of the invention is to so improve the ordinary constructionof these bins as to obviate many of the existing objections thereto.

The nature of my improvement I have fully disclosed in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein- Figure l is a front view of the bin. Figs. 2 and 3are sections thereof upon the lines 2 2 and 3 3, respectively, of Fig.l. Fig. et is a section of the stirrer, and Figs. 5 and 6 are detailsections of portions of the bin.

My bin is preferably made in the form of a cylinder, and its walls areusually constructed of sheet metal. This cylinder is shown at A. It isprovided With a removable cover B and a permanent bottom C, the latterof wood. A stirrer, composed of bent wires D and carrying-disks d, issupported upon a shaft E and operated by a crank-handle F, locatedoutside the bin. The shaft E is supported in brackets G and H, which aresecured to and rest upon the hopper-shaped sieve-floor, which ispreferably composed of a truncated sheetmetal portion I and the centralwire-cloth or sieve portion J. The cylinder A is furnished withan-interior bead o, which serves to support this screen and door, as isplainly apparent from Figs. 2 and 6; but the combined stirrer, door, andsieve may be removed upwardly through the top ot' the bin wheneverrepairs or cleaning are necessary, the crankhandle being removablyattached. By supporting the stirrer in this manner upon the sieve Ifacilitate the taking out of the stirrer and sieve, and this isin1portant,because pieces of paper and other foreign matter are apt tobecome lodged in the sieve or entangled among the arms of the stirrerand prevent the perfect working of the sieve. It will be noticed thatthe bracket G has an elongated slot g to receive the shaft E and that aspring e encircles the shaft at the end supported by said bracket and issecured to the door I. This spring exerts a constant downward pull uponthe shaft and insures contact between the stirrer-arms and the sievewhen the arms pass over the latter. The spring at the same time willyield should any foreign mattersuch as paper-come between the arms andthe sieve and thus prevent any rupture of the apparatus. These stirrershave customarily been supported positively at a fixed distance from thescreen and in the course of a short period of use the contact betweenthe stirrer-arms and the sieve becomes destroyed either by the bendingof the arms or the gradual giving down of the sieve or the wearing awayof the parts, but this spring keeps up the proper close contact of theparts at all times.

The arms D, which are formed of Wire bent into U shape, are secured totheir carryingdisks, so as to stand tangentially to the axis, as plainlyindicated in Fig. 4. This obviates much of the bending and getting outof shape which occurs with prevailing constructions.

The crank-handle is coupled to the shaft by means of a coupling block orpiece K, which is threaded upon the shaft E at one side and receives thecrank-handle at the other side. This coupling-block serves anotherfunction, also, in that it prevents longitudinal movement of the shaftand retains it in its supporting-brackets. The coupling is enabled to dothis by reason of its contact with the cylinder A on one side and withthe bracket H upon the other.

I have heretofore spoken of the taking out of the sieve and itsSupporting-cone I. Being thus removable, I lind it desirable to stilfenit by a marginal wire i, secured to its under surface, as plainlyindicated. This wire rests upon the bead a and prevents any tendency ofthe cone to bend or collapse and increases its rigidity.

The door by which access is had to remove the screened flour is shown atL and is a sliding door, upper and lower ways in which it may be movedto one side of the opening being provided upon the cylinder A, and theconstruction of these ways is such as to prevent any rubbing by the doorupon the p0rtion of the case covered by the door When it is open. In theconstruction of these Ways I IOO impart to the cylinder A the outwardbends, forming beads m both above and below the door, and adjacent toeach of these beads is an odset n. The door is confined to the case bythe upper and lowei` guards M, secured to the outside of the beads m,and projecting one down and the other up, so as to form recesses betweenthe offsets n and said guards, in which the door may slide. The osets 'nhold the door at a slight remove from the surface of the cylinder A, asindicated at Fig. 5, so that when the door is opened and moved around inthe ways thus constructed there is no rubbing by the door against anyportion of the cylinder A, except said offsets n, and the finish of thecylinder remains uninjured by the movements of the door. The guards Mextend from the doorway a sufficient distance to support the door whenopen, as will be noticed in Fig. 3.

I deem it desirable to provide the door with a device which will preventits being entirely separated from the bin, and a very simple way ofaccomplishing this is to provide its forward end with an interior hookP, which, when the door is opened to the full extent, will engage withthe side p of the door-opening and lock the door against furthermovement in that direction. The ways provided for the door may be closedat the opposite side of the doory opening, as shown at o, and thusprevent removal of the door in that direction, also. The hook P may beconveniently formed by bending some portion of the metal forming thedoor inward, as illustrated at Fig. 3. The door-knob O is secured to therosette q, soldered or stamped upon the door, and this rosette givesrooni for the securing of the shank of the knob without creating anyprotuberance upon the inner surface of the door which would be likely toscratch or mar the surface of the cylinder A when the door is opened.

The bottom C is provided with an outward bead a., as seen at Figs. l and2, and the bottom of the case A extends down to this bead, but doesnotcover it. My purposein this construction is to avoid marring thebottom of the cylinder A in shipping the bin and in moving it about. Ifallowed to extend clear to the lower surface of the bottom C, the metalwould become jammed and marred, particularly if the bin were tipped uponits edge.

For the purpose of securing the stirrer upon the shaft E and alsokeyingit thereto I secure rigidly to the shaft a projection orprojections R (shown at dotted lines in Fig. 4L) and provide upon oneside of one of the disks projections fr, between which is formed arecess adapted to receive and engage with the projections R. At theother side of said disk a linehpin S is passed through the shaft. Saidprojections R and the linchpin confine the stirrer against endwisemovement upon the shaft.

By inclining the stirrer-arms tangentially, as shown, I avail myself oftheir flexibility to ease their passage over the sieve, obtaining inthis way a greater amount of flexibility than would be had if the arinsstood out radially. This is important in my bin, because of the constantpressure by the arms upon the sieve caused by the spring e.

I claiml. The flour-bin provided with a removable sieve, a stirrerhaving a vertically-yielding horizontal axis, and a spring for keepingthe stirrer in Contact with the sieve, both the stir rer and springbeing supported upon the sieve and removable therewith, substantially asspecified.

2. The combination, with the flour-bin having` the beads m and offsetsn, adapted to maintain the door at such a remove from the bin as willprevent injury to the finished surface, of the sliding door L and theguards M, substantially as specified.

3. The combination, with the bin and the sliding door therefor, of waysfor the door set off from the body of the bin, so as to hold the door ata remove from and prevent injury to the finish of the bin, substantiallyas set forth.

CHRISTIAAN TANGENBERG.

lVitnesses:

EMMA HACK, LEw. E. CURTIS.

